EVOLUTION OF THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM. 247 



draws to itself the idlers solely because it is easy, 

 the fault lies with the teacher. The success of 

 the elective system, as of any system, demands 

 the removal of inefficient teachers. The elective 

 system can never wholly succeed unless each 

 teacher has the power and the will to enforce 

 good work, to remove from his classes all idle or 

 inefficient students. 



2. It is again objected that students having free- 

 dom of choice are likely to select erratic courses 

 in accordance with temporary whims, rather than 

 with any theory of educational development. This 

 again is true ; but it is likewise true that the course 

 apparently the most erratic may be the one which 

 brings the student in contact with the strongest 

 men. If a Harvard student of a few years ago could 

 have made his college course exclusively of Botany, 

 Embryology, Greek, Anatomy, and Early English, 

 it would seem a singular combination. It would 

 sound differently if it were said that his teachers 

 in college were chiefly Asa Gray, Goodwin, Holmes, 

 Lowell, and Agassiz. It is also true, I think, that 

 the average course as chosen by the students 

 themselves is as capable of serious defence as 

 the average established course, evolved from the 

 pulling and hauling and patching and fitting of the 

 average college Faculty. 



3. Another criticism is that the elective system 

 offers special temptation to undue or premature 

 specialization. This is true ; and premature spe- 

 cialization, like other forms of precocious virtue, is 

 much to be deprecated. But experience does not 

 lead me to think that the danger of " undue spe- 



